The present invention relates to a daisy wheel printer, and more particularly, to such a printer which is small in size.
Conventional daisy wheel printers include a petal-shaped wheel having a plurality of bars extending radially and carrying type fonts on their end portions for printing characters by impact on a paper sheet wrapped partially around a rotatable platen. A hammer is provided for striking the type fonts one at a time against an ink ribbon disposed between the paper sheet and the type fonts at the time of printing a desired character, and a correcting ribbon is often provided between the paper sheet and the type font when it is desired to correct a printed character.
The petal-shaped wheel or daisy wheel in the conventional printer is, however, generally disposed vertically and hence the printer body has a high vertical dimension. The vertical daisy wheel, therefore, disadvantageous in that it cannot be used in smaller printers.
The prior daisy wheel printers also require a first drive mechanism for moving the ink ribbon along the axis of the platen, a second drive mechanism for moving the correcting ribbon along the axis of the platen, a lifting and lowering mechanism for lifting and lowering the ink ribbon and correcting ribbon in a direction normal to the axis of the platen when a printed character is to be corrected, and a memory for storing data for characters printed on the print paper sheet to allow printed characters to be corrected. Such printers are, therefore, complex in construction, costly to manufacture, and require complicated control modes.